In my ongoing quest to understand wokeism, I look at San Francisco, which in many respects is even more wokey-dokey than Oakland. There’s no better way to understand the phenomenon than to examine the wokest things that have been done in San Francisco, and the individuals behind them.
It’s sort of like being an anthropologist, a latter-day Margaret Mead exploring the culture of Woke Island. San Francisco’s school board famously tried to rename public schools named after George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, whom they deemed “racist.” The Board also tried to end merit-based admission to Lowell High School because too many Asians, and not enough Blacks, were getting in. The Board was duly punished: three of them were recalled by fed-up voters.
The latest woke wackiness in the City by the Bay comes after the city’s effort to sack its Elections Director, John Arntz. The reason: Arntz, who has run elections for 20 years and has, by every account, been an outstanding director, is White. Now, when I say “the city’s effort” to sack him, I don’t mean Mayor London Breed or the Board of Supervisors, all of whom oppose the move. I mean a single unelected official, a gentleman by the name of Chris Jerdonek, who, as President of the San Francisco Elections Commission, is Arntz’s boss. Jerdonek, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, says “the decision not to renew Arntz’s contract wasn’t about his performance, but after twenty years we wanted to take action on the City’s racial equity plan.”
What plan, you ask? Officially dubbed the “Racial and Social Equity Action Plan,” it was the brainchild of the San Francisco Planning Department. Launched last year, the plan was a “racially-inclusive” one designed to make sure that more people of color are hired for public jobs in San Francisco. The Planning Department said, “We envision a Department that proactively infuses racial and social equity in both internal operations and external Planning work. Together, we are reimagining what the Planning field is and can be…”.
There it is, the “R” word: Reimagining. Whenever I hear it uttered by a public official, I want to scream: in Oakland, of course, “Reimagining Public Safety” meant defunding the police. In San Francisco, now, it means firing White men because they’re, well, White men.
But back to Chris Jerdonek. Who is he, and what do we know about him? For starters, he’s a Ph.D. software developer, i.e., a really smart guy. Appointed by the Board of Supervisors, he’s been President of the Commission since 2014 and, interestingly, he wrote Oakland’s “Ranked Choice” charter amendment, the same one that just got Sheng Thao elected. He’s White. He lives in the Mission, is “mostly” a vegan, and rides a bicycle to get around. He appears to be in his 40s, a good-looking, typically liberal San Francisco guy.
But Jerdonek to my knowledge has not yet explained why he wants to fire Arntz, beyond that silly “to take action on the City’s racial equity plan.” Now, let it be understood that Jerdonek has encountered huge backlash for his action, not only locally but internationally, not only from conservatives but from liberals. Many people see it as exactly what it is: wokeism run amok, an insane act of political violence. At the moment, after a week of criticism, it’s not clear that Jerdonek and his Elections Commission are about to back down, or if there will be a lawsuit against them. Arntz, to my knowledge, has being laying low.
What we do know is that a talented, blameless public servant is about to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. If this isn’t the definition of “cancel culture,” then what is?
The funny thing is that this is occurring against the backdrop of San Francisco actually turning against wokeism. After they fired their School Board, they similarly chucked Chesa Boudin. There are many indications that San Franciscans are tired of the woke B.S. and are finally willing to do something about it.
We can only hope that Arntz isn’t fired, or will be quickly rehired if he already has been, and that Jerdonek will be made to pay a price for his rash, bigoted action. He should step down immediately, and Mayor Breed should explain that the city’s Racial and Social Equity Action Plan was not meant as a device for reverse racism.
Steve Heimoff